An Overview of State and Local Legislation to Support Local News: Policy Mechanisms and Challenges to Impact

Abstract

Since 2017, in response to catastrophic declines in the commercial model that has traditionally undergirded U.S. journalism, lawmakers in 10 states have introduced legislation specifically designed to provide support to local news media. This analysis identifies four mechanisms in the legislation: tax incentives, establishment of a task force or commission, appropriation of general funding, and mandated advertising expenditures. Through late 2022, five of 24 bills introduced have been enacted in four states, a rate about the same as for state legislation enactment overall. I discuss several challenges attendant to the enactment of legislation aimed at supporting local news: (1) partisan divides, (2) budgetary restrictions, (3) narrow definitions of local news media, and (4) exacerbation of the deterioration of the economic conditions faced by news media by legislation that guts public notice laws. I also discuss the mandating of advertising expenditures enacted in New York and Chicago.